This invention relates to methods of loading porous polyolefinic items with nicotine. These nicotine-loaded porous polyolefinic items are adapted for usage in nicotine dispensers simulating in appearance, for example, cigarettes. The polyolefinic items absorb nicotine in a manner as yet incompletely defined but characterized by a reversibility, i.e., absorbed nicotine may be liberated as a vapor or gas.
Previous U.S. patents, for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,280,823, described a tobacco smoke filter comprising nicotine held in ionic bondage to an ion-exchange resin. The use of polyolefins to absorptively and reversibly retain nicotine has not been described except in the copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 738,120.